


Verdict

by FrivolousSuits



Category: Suits (US TV)
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Angst, M/M, Not A Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 14:32:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15487938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrivolousSuits/pseuds/FrivolousSuits
Summary: “I think we know who the best man is.”“Hm,” Mike corrects just before walking down the aisle, “okay. Good, maybe. Not the best.”Harvey takes it as a challenge.





	Verdict

**Author's Note:**

> **Warnings are in the end notes**.
> 
> Based on Marvey Fic Challenge #85 ("Witness for the Prosecution"). Canon-compliant up through the promos for 8x03.

“I think we know who the best man is.”

“Hm,” Mike corrects just before walking down the aisle, “okay. Good, maybe. Not the best.”

His eyes are missing their usual teasing glint, but Harvey brushes it off. The conversation’s slightly off-pitch, but it doesn’t matter because they’ve got years more together, years more to joke with each other and laugh and banter–

“We’re not coming back.”

* * *

 

He goes.

Harvey sits in front of his unlit fireplace, hands shaking as he tries to place his glass of scotch back on the table without breaking it too. He’s not sure how many glasses he’s had, he lost track back when he realized that the only two people he hasn’t let down in the last few weeks are Louis Litt and his mother.

He’s failed everyone and everything else. Donna resents him ( _if anyone knows about selfish, it's you_ ), he couldn’t save Jessica in Chicago ( _are you related to anyone in this courtroom?_ ), Scottie’s still trying to piece her career back together after him ( _that doesn't mean that I haven't suffered from my association with you_ ), he crushed Paula’s heart ( _I can't give you what you need_ ), and he’s forever surrendered the firm to Robert Zane. Proof stacks up, the accusations fly, he’s on trial in his own head and he already suspects he’s guilty. Guilty of selfishness, guilty of short-sightedness, guilty of insensitivity and cruelty.

He’s launching the most rigorous _pro se_ defense he can, counter-attacking every accuser. They’re not perfect either, he had reasons for every move he made, he’s been fighting unwinnable wars, the damn game’s stacked against _him_. He’s not sure whether he’s saying it aloud or battling it all out in his head, but he could win, he could justify his conduct, he could save himself from his death sentence.

Then the prosecution pulls out its star witness. An expert witness, who’s known Harvey at his best, who sees redeeming qualities in everyone who crosses his path, who would never hurt Harvey if there was any hope left for him.

_“Okay. Good, maybe. Not the best.”_

It’s an excellent closing statement.

* * *

 

Harvey can’t believe there’s no hope for him. The thought deadens his eyes, it makes him feel more like a ghost haunting the firm than a goddamn managing partner, but he soldiers on and throws himself into the war against Zane.

He forfeits at the end of Round 1, and though everyone around him considers it a sign of growth or maturity he knows he’s just too damn tired to stay in the ring.

(And now he’s disappointed Alex, because he’s _a guy who's just gonna do what he wants, like he always does_.)

The spark resurges in his eyes briefly when one of Mike’s old favorite clients walks in desperate for help, and within an instant of meeting the young man– smart, enterprising, with slicked-down dirty blonde hair and the bluest eyes– Harvey’s desperate to help him. He knows it’s foolish to surrender his loyalty so quickly to someone he’s never met, but even though Robert doesn’t believe in the kid’s innocence he does, heart and soul.

He starts an aggressive investigation into Max’s entrepreneurial business partner– an anchor if he’s ever seen one– and pushes back against Samantha’s meddling ( _all we have to do is commit fraud to get out of fraud?_ ). He maneuvers and saves Max from fraud, from jail, he fights to earn Max’s trust, he’s Harvey Goddamn Specter and he’ll lay down his life he has to–

Max backstabs him and then leaves the company Harvey poured his soul into saving _to spend more time with his family_.

The next day Robert congratulates Harvey, tells him he looks smug as _the cat who ate the canary_ , and Harvey wonders if Robert’s got eye problems, or whether he’s really that skilled at pretending he’s not a dead man walking.

* * *

 

He tries to settle out of court.

See, there’s a gun to his head, but he’ll try the 146 other options. Mike’s still alive, probably struggling out in Seattle with his fledgling firm, and if Harvey can just remake this firm he’ll win him back.

It’s simple.

So he takes a pro bono case, the most explosive one he can find, one that could shake the firm if he plays it right. Robert didn’t ask him to– hell, Robert starts trying to make him drop it in a couple hours flat– but Harvey digs his heels in.

_Because Mike would have done it._

He nearly gets the firm kicked out of their offices again; Robert’s enraged, Samantha and Donna and Louis too, and Alex has given up any and all hope of getting his name on the wall even before it’s all done, and Harvey can’t bring himself to care. Mike hasn’t called; there’s no proof he even noticed.

There’s only one case Harvey cares about anymore.

* * *

 

He moves to Chicago.

He shows up on Jessica’s doorstep, and she’s too damn overwhelmed to question it. Next thing he knows she’s pulled some string to sneak him back into the Illinois bar and into the District Attorney’s office. He doesn’t question that, instead conferring with her to seize the best cases he can find, where “best” for once means the most impactful, the most helpful for society. He prioritizes orphans.

On occasion he finds the work meaningful in its own right, when he saves a hundred families from being displaced from their homes, when he prosecutes half a precinct for corruption and the use of excessive force. Most days, though, he’s waiting like a jilted girlfriend for a call that never comes.

“Shall we go celebrate your victory, hm?”

After he kills it in court on a particularly tricky case, Jessica invites him out for a drink like the old days, no doubt expecting him to leave halfway through with the prettiest waitress in the place.

“Not tonight.”

She pauses for a moment and tilts her head, considering him, and for a moment he wonders if someone’s finally seen right through him. Then she lets out a sigh that sounds as lifeless as he feels. “It’s for the best. I have to go see McGann again.”

* * *

 

He didn’t think it’d happen this fast.

He’s been in Chicago less than a year and already made a name for himself on a national scale; the _Tribune_ ran their first article on him months back, and now _The New York Times_ is running a feature on his latest case against organized crime, on how he’s braving pushback, even threats of violence to do the right thing. They title it “The Redemption of a Corporate Lawyer” and link back to the profile they did on Mike. It’s objectively the most important trial of Harvey’s life so far, and there’s no way in hell even a little pro bono firm in Washington State could have missed it.

He switches off his cell halfway through the night after yet another unknown number sends him a threatening text– misspelled, somebody get these mobsters a dictionary– and returns to refining his opening statement. He dozes off on his couch, the files drifting up and down on his chest, and his secretary wakes him in the morning with a bagel and coffee before settling at her desk. A few minutes later, she puts through a call from Jessica, who’s phoning him with some especially convenient new evidence; she stayed up the whole night herself to find it, and they work until the last minute to incorporate it smoothly into his speech.

Just as he’s running out, he swings by his secretary’s desk. “Any other calls I should know about?”

“You’ll never finish this, you’re going to regret it, so on and so forth. I alerted the police, but I think at least a couple were _from_ cops.”

He rolls his eyes. “Typical.”

“And there was another one, from . . .” She flicks through her notes. “Seattle? Pretty insistent, I told him you weren’t available.”

“No, no, call him back– dammit.” He checks the clock and realizes he’s out of time. “Tell him I’ll call back, as soon as I’m out of court.”

He can’t call Mike now, he’s too busy being shoved into a car by his police escort and reviewing his notes, committing them to memory because he can’t speak one word that's not true.

It’s a ten-minute task, but it takes the full half hour because Harvey’s mind keeps composing another opening statement. Once he gets through today’s work, he’ll turn his attention to speaking his truth in what’s really the most important case in his life.

He didn’t think it’d happen this fast.

He first notices the glint of sunlight on metal when he gets out of the car, and then the whole gun. He dimly registers the cops seeing the same thing and staying right where they are, and he’s falling to his knees to duck, and then he’s only falling.

The drop takes a lifetime: _the riffs on his dad’s saxophone, you remember our cousin my cousin Scott, Marcus and the bully’s dad, the crack in his shoulder on the x-ray, the wrong date on an envelope, a blue dress fluttering in the wind outside Langdell, stepping out of the elevator with his girl Friday._

With the click of a briefcase it speeds into one breathless rush, even as Harvey begs for more time.

_Playing hearts, 146 other things, the tang of pineapple I love you Harvey, an image of you as a dad, a picture of Dorian Gray hanging in my closet, did you boys have a nice date, I wasn’t supposed to tell you that, I'm not doing it to be the hero, what’s the verdict, are you threatening a federal prosecutor Harvey, offering a deal done done done, it’s just this Brooklyn Housing thing, I will take a break from the clinic, I got a chance to run a firm in Seattle, it’s who I am who I’ve always been – _

_What’s the verdict?_

_Okay._

_Okay, maybe, good, maybe, not the best but good, maybe, maybe . . .  
_

* * *

 

_He goes, I go._

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: includes gun violence and implied major character death
> 
> Thanks to [statusquo_ergo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/statusquo_ergo/pseuds/statusquo_ergo/works) for all her input on this fic ever since S07E16 aired.
> 
> Someone plagiarized part of this fic. This is the original.


End file.
